On occasion, cargo storage and/or transport may result in property loss from numerous perils such as, without limitation, perils related to weather, thief, mishandling, environmental stresses, equipment malfunction, fire, and/or any other potential quality-affecting event(s). For example, transporting cargo is a highly complex and nontransparent industry with many isolated processes for each stakeholder in the value chain. For example, there are numerous technological problems that have been associated with transporting and storing the cargo, such as but not limited to perishable goods, antiques, pharmaceuticals, automobile parts, computer parts, etc. As detailed herein, in at least some of embodiments, the term cargo transport and its derivatives includes all activities (including in-transit storage, etc.) and all parties from a time the cargo leaves a manufacturer's site and/or seller's site to a delivery place as identified, for example, in cargo transport documents. As detailed herein, while may embodiments herein have been described with respect the cargo transport, a person skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be equally applicable as technological solution(s) to manage losses due to quality shortfall during the storage (e.g., storing meats in a meat locker (refrigerator) at a restaurant).
One technological problem is limited ability to predict when equipment (e.g., ship's engine, etc.) involved the cargo transport might fail or to monitor and/or modify environmental conditions such as refrigeration. For example, a technological solution is wanted to predict prior to and/or during the cargo transport that a cargo transporter (e.g., truck, ship, plane) and/or cargo containers (e.g., refrigerated containers/reefers, etc.) might experience an equipment failure during transport that would negatively impact the quality of the cargo so that one or more remedial actions might be implemented in real-time to reduce and/or eliminate such negative impact.
Another technological problem, that might also be related to the technological problem identified above, is that typically the cargo transport travels along routes that have no or severely diminished computer and/or communication infrastructure (e.g., open sea, desert, Canadian's Boreal forest, etc.) so that even if the cargo transport and/or cargo container is/are retrofitted with some type of environmental and/or operational sensor(s), transmitting sensor data and/or equipment operational data (e.g., telematic data) in real-time to a transport command center and/or taking real-time remedial action(s) to reduce and/or eliminate such negative impact to the quality of the cargo may be negatively impacted due to the diminished computing and/or communication infrastructure and/or technical limitations of equipment (e.g., sensors requiring sufficient power for long distance transmission of the sensor/operational data).
Another technical problem is recording the specific time when a loss and/or damage may have occurred. With multiple parties involved in storing and/or transporting goods, it can be difficult to assign liability to the proper party. For example, a shipment from China to the United States that moves via ocean container may have a consolidation warehouse and multiple trucks or rail carriers involved in China before arrival at the port and then once in the United States, a deconsolidation warehouse and multiple trucks or rail carriers before arriving at the intended destination. A technological solution is to have a third party (for example, without limitation, a sensor-managing entity) record/determine when the loss occurred to properly assign liability to the party that may have caused the damage. This then allows the cargo owner or their insurance company to verifiably seek compensation and/or subrogate against that party.
Yet another technological problem is how to timely process and generate electronic remedial instruction(s) that affect(s) or is/are designed to affect, for example, in real-time, the cargo transport (e.g., vehicle, ship, plane, etc.), cargo storage (e.g., refrigerated container, etc.), or both, in a positive feedback loop to reduce or eliminate the quality shortfall of the goods (e.g., perishable goods, antiques, auto parts, etc.). For example, on one hand, the environmental and/or operational sensor data, as detailed herein, typically might be collected/generated by one type of equipment (e.g., data-collecting sensors), whereas electronic remedial instruction(s), and thus communication link(s) must be typically established with another type of equipment (e.g., truck's electronic computer unit (ECU)) to affect how the transport (e.g., vehicle, ship, airplane, etc.), cargo storage (e.g., refrigerated container, etc.), or both behave/operate.
Yet another technological problem is that a typical, conventional computational hardware (e.g., servers) and a typical, conventional networking/transmission hardware (e.g., routers, re-transmitters, antennas, etc.) are unable to adjust their operational capabilities based, for example without limitation, a type of remedial action and/or a type of transport equipment being involved.
Yet another technological problem is that a typical, conventional computational hardware (e.g., servers) might not allow all stakeholders in the cargo transport and/or storage industries to transparently access and/or reliably verify transport and/or storage data that provides a wholesome view in numerous, if not all, aspects of the cargo transport.
Another technological problem is that a typical, conventional cargo insurance claims are not started until a loss adjuster or claims surveyor has viewed the damage to the merchandise (e.g., at the end destination in the case of the cargo transport, or the surveyor found an availability (maybe in a few days or a week) to visit the restaurant to view the spoiled meat). For example, cargo transits can take over a month in the case of ocean transport. A technological solution is to create parameters from the sensor derived data to determine when perils related to weather, thief, mishandling, environmental stresses, equipment malfunction, fire, and/or any other potential quality-affecting event(s) may have occurred and allowing an insurance company to begin and or even finalize the claim process (i.e., pay out the compensation) while the goods are still in transit (e.g., allowing the sender to send a new shipment when, based on the sensor derive data, the sender receives a compensation).
Another technological problem is that the typical cargo storage and transport insurance underwriting process relies on anecdotal information to determine policy terms and price. A technological solution is to use historical sensor-based and/or sensor-collected transit and storage data to automatically and dynamically manage the cargo storage and/or cargo transport insurance process lifecycles, from underwriting to claim adjudication.